Dhone pata are cilantro leaves and fritters are called bora. Coming from my Bengali roots, deep-fried fritters should flow in my veins! Bengalis love anything deep-fried, be it for breakfast, lunch, snacks or dinner. If you ever visit a Bengali family for an everyday meal, you are assured to find at least one variety of fritters on the menu. It’s classically served with steamed rice and daal or steamed rice and ghee (clarified butter). That’s how the meal starts, followed by several other courses. I am not going to the subject of everyday-multi-course-Bengali-meal, that’s for some other post. Today, I just want to chat about these dhone pata boda (cilantro fritters).
Ingredients you need for Dhone Pata Boda
It’s the sheer simplicity of the ingredients that makes these fritters so easy and quick to whip together. Fresh Cilantro Leaves - You want bright green fresh cilantro leaves as that is the key ingredient of this dish. Gram Flour - You can use either gram flour (besan) or even rice flour. Occasionally I also add a bit of semolina for the extra crunch. Nigealla seeds - It’s optional to add nigella seeds, but it does add a lovely peppery flavor. Turmeric - I add just a very tiny bit of turmeric powder to add color, but you want the fritters to look green, so don’t add a lot. Green Chili - I like to add 1 finely chopped green chili for the subtle heat it will add to the dhone pata boda, but you can discard if you like.
Steps to prepare
1- Finely chop the cilantro leaves. I use the stems too. 2- Add the leaves to a mixing bowl and add rest of the ingredients. Give a mix to incorporate everything. 3- Add water little by little to bring it all together. 4- Don’t add too much water, or else to adjust the consistency you will add to add more flour. The flour should be very minimal just to bring the leaves. 5-To deep-fry the fritters, heat enough oil in a heavy bottom wok or pan. Shape small portions with hand and drop it carefully in hot oil. 6- These fritters don’t take a long time to fry, keep tossing around until it looks crispy. 7- Always keep deep-fried fritters in a wired basket to allow the steam to pass through, this will keep the dhone pata boda crispy. 8- As you break open, it will be soft in the center ad crispy outside. I know how some of you utterly dislike the taste of cilantro leaves and find the taste similar to that of soap (yes, I heard some famous chefs referring to soap). Honestly, that made no logic to me until I read the article, which gives a very scientific cause for such distastes. So, if you fall in the I-hate-cilantro category, then you might want to try this recipe with parsley. Even though it’s deep-fried, it doesn’t feel very heavy on the belly. However, if you want to completely steer away from deep-frying, you can certainly shallow fry these. Fritters are my favorite and I enjoy the versatility. We can go as creative as we crave, or go extremely humble like these fritters with cilantro as the hero. Even though I use cilantro every day in my cooking, there are a few such situations when am still left with a ginormous bunch to finish. And that predictably happens when the husband is not very sure of how much herb I asked him to buy. So, it’s either chutney or these dhone pata boda.
Try these fritters:
Sabudana Vada Kolar Boda Dahi Kebab Zucchini Blossom Fritters zucchini blossoms stuffed
